EIWA Members

*CHARLES
“ED” ACKERLY, Cornell ’20, placed 2nd,
1st, 2nd in the EIWA and was the USA’s
only 1920 Olympic gold medalist in Antwerp, Belgium, competing at
132 pounds. To win that gold, he needed to avenge his 1920 league
finals loss to Penn’s Sam Gerson – who settled for
Olympic silver. In 1919, Ackerly had beaten Gerson in the EIWA
semis. In those years, the rivals competed at 115 and 125, with Ed
wrestling for renowned coach, Walter O’Connell.

Ackerly was inducted into the
Helms Foundation Hall of Fame in 1960 and into Cornell’s Hall
of Fame in 1981. He was a member of the Sphinx Head
Society, the oldest senior
leadership honor society at the
University. Ed practiced law in Detroit, Michigan, then retired
to Clearwater, Florida before his passing in 1982.